I died on a Tuesday.
Not that the day matters now. I only remember because it was raining, and I forgot my umbrella again. My last memory on Earth was a flash of headlights and the feeling that I'd left something important undone.
Then… nothing.
Not blackness. Not dreams. Just void.I wasn't floating or falling. I wasn't.Time didn't pass. Or maybe it did. You lose track of things like that when you don't even have a heartbeat.
When awareness returned, it wasn't gentle. It was like being dragged up from the bottom of an ocean by the spine.
I couldn't see. Couldn't move. But I could feel.
Cold.
Not the kind you shake off. The deep kind, the kind that burrows into bones that shouldn't even exist anymore. I felt the dirt pressing in around me. The weight of dead air. The stench of rot.
Then the real horror hit me.I wasn't buried alive. I was buried dead.And I was still inside the body.
I wanted to scream.No lungs. No voice. Just silent panic clawing against the inside of a skull that wasn't mine—at least, I didn't think it was.
'Was this hell?'
I don't know how long I was trapped in that corpse. Maybe minutes. Maybe centuries. But then… something changed.
A sound echoed in my mind, not with ears, but like a voice whispered straight into my soul.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE.]Welcome, Soulbound Host. You have been selected for Eternal Integration.You may now select 5 Ultimate Skills.
I froze—figuratively. A system? Like a game?
Choose your first skill.
I couldn't see the list, but I didn't need to. One option pulsed in my mind like a heartbeat.
[Resurrection – Revive the host body to peak condition. Cooldown: 7 days.]
'Please… let this work.'
I didn't hesitate.
[Skill Acquired: Resurrection.][Activating…]
And then—pain.
Not dull. Not distant. Real.My nerves lit up like lightning across an open field. My chest heaved, lungs filling with air for the first time in—God knows how long. My fingers twitched. Muscles pulled tight. Vision exploded into—
Nothing.
Still dark. Still silent. But now I could move. I could feel. I could breathe.
'Why is it still dark?''No… wait. This isn't a cave. This… this is a coffin.'
I reached out and my fingers hit rough wood just inches above my face. My other hand scraped stone—dirt and splinters.
'I'm underground. Buried. Of course I am. I just resurrected in a dead body… what else was I expecting?'
I closed my eyes—not that it helped—and took a slow, shaky breath.
"System," I whispered, my voice raw and broken. "Open skill selection."
[Remaining Ultimate Skill Slots: 4]Displaying Recommended Skills Based on Host Soul Profile…
As soon as the message finished, glowing options flooded my mind—rows of impossible powers, each one begging to be claimed. I didn't have time to examine every one. I needed a way out, a way to fight, and a way to survive in this unknown world.
'Alright, Isaac. You've got four more choices to make. Choose right… or stay buried forever.'